There are many conditions or diseases which occur within the body of a human being or an animal which respond effectively to treatment by the use of one or more medicaments. For many such conditions and diseases the medicament is taken orally. Once swallowed, the medicament eventually migrates to the location of the condition or disease by passing through the gastrointestinal system. In still other instances, medicament is delivered to the location of the condition or disease through the bloodstream. Specifically, the medicament is injected by a syringe into a muscle or soft tissue and then carried by the flow of blood. In still other situations, generally in a health care facility, an IV drip may be used to place the medicament directly into a blood vessel. In yet other situations, some type of surgical intervention is used to physically place a particular medicament within the body at or near the location of a condition or disease.
It has been found that by use of the techniques developed for the creation of integrated circuits, small drug delivery devices can be manufactured which may be used to both contain and then deliver medicament to the site of a condition or disease within the human body. Examples of such small drug implantation devices are disclosed in the following U.S. patents: U.S. Pat. No. 5,770,076; U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,898; U.S. Pat. No. 5,985,328; U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,861, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,313. Many of these small drug implantation devices are highly complex and, accordingly, both difficult and expensive to manufacture. Thus, there remains a need in the art for a simple, low cost, easy-to-manufacture implantable small drug delivery device that can be adapted for implantation within the body of a human being or other animal to deliver medicament to a wide variety of locations.